A political scientist at the University of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Asah-Asante, has accused Ghana’s political elites for the increasing acts of corruption within the country’s political landscape.
According to him, the unacceptable acts in Ghana’s politics, can be blamed on those at the top of the political ladder; that is the political elites.
Speaking in an interview with Benjamin Akakpo on the AM Show on Monday, he expressed concerns about the reports of vote buying, which characterized the recently held regional elections of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
In his view, such acts are uncalled for and must be eliminated from Ghana’s politics.
“The political elites, take it or leave it, have corrupted the system. Because if you want votes, it is three things. It is what I call ‘RSM’. Your resources, your strategy and your message which is tied to your manifesto.
“Your human resource include the calibre of people you have put in place who’re going to contest or vote for you or you’re going to vote for. Yes, you will spend some money, but we believe that this thing must be within a certain range that doesn’t raise an eyebrow.
“But what do we see? We see it like a market place where people doll out money, throw money out, just to induce, entice and get people to vote for them. It tells you that there’s something wrong with the grassroot of our democracy. Because democracy does not flow with behaviours like this”, he explained.
He added that, “We have encouraged these things over the years, and the laws on that, the elites have thrown them away. Nobody wants to enforce anything on that. Because they themselves who are the political elite, who must enforce these things are guilty. Of course, not all of them”.
